Rain
by The Spiffinator
Summary: A sequel to 'Princes Familiar'. This won't make much sense without it. I know the genres look weird together, but it makes sense, trust me.
1. Rain

**Hello all! Thanks for the amazing reviews about Princes Familiar (PF). Tonight, just about a year later, I've decided to write a sequel. Remember, at the end, Alize disappeared and was never heard from again? What happened to Alize? Everyone thought she was dead or captured…but was she?**

**This picks up where PF left off. The last chapter of PF essentially sums up what happens in here, but this goes into more detail.**

**I may or may not expand this story. What do you think I should do? Should I leave it as a one-shot or continue by talking about their child?**

**Once again, Alanis Morissette guides the story with her amazing lyrics.**

**As a disclaimer for the whole story, I do not own Sirius nor the premise of the wizarding world, or any characters you recognize from J.K.R.'s books. Also, I don't own the lyrics. Okay okay, enough of my rambling; let's get on with the story!**

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* * *

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_And we were, were standing in the pouring rain  
If I had known it was the last time I would see you again...  
I would change everything..._

Alanis Morissette, _Rain_

Alize hated the rain.

She used to love the rain. She used to love that feeling of nothingness it gave her, the release, the ability to lose herself in the drops as they washed away everything about her.

That was before.

Today, as she stared out her window into the rain, she wasn't nearly so calm. Her arms encircled her legs as she crouched into a ball on the floor. She rested her chin on her left knee and cried, creating a mini-rain of her own.

She had loved the rain before…but this was after.

* * *

_**FLASHBACK**_

"Siri dear! I've something to tell you!" sang Alize happily as she practically danced into the flat. Her hair was dripping wet from the pouring rain outside. Her day had been superb, and the rain was just the icing on the cake. Then she found out this…well she couldn't wait to tell her love all about it. That is, she couldn't wait until she saw his desolate state. "Sir—oh Merlin, Sirius, what's wrong love?"

The man in front of her was hardly recognizable as her love. He had a strong five o' clock shadow and his hair was mussed up. He had obviously not moved from this table all day, except perhaps to fetch another shot of firewhiskey. He looked up at her with bloodshot eyes. "I've something to tell you as well… but you go ahead, love. You go first." It seemed as if every word he spoke was paining him, but whether this was due to his hoarse voice or something else, Alize couldn't quite tell.

"You…go ahead. Yes, I'm sure," she interrupted as she saw his mouth open. A worried look was obvious on her face, and Sirius winced.

"I…" He took a steadying deep breath. "I don't think we should be together any more."

Instantly, Alize's happy day evaporated. It was as if he'd thrown a rock at the fragile pane of glass that was her happiness. She wanted nothing more than to sob, to throw herself at him, to beg him to change his mind or at least ask him why. But Alize had sworn up and down to herself that she would never do anything like that. She would not be that desperate girl, that weak girl. She did not need a man.

Alize bit her lip and closed her eyes for a second. When she opened them, a steely barrier was already apparent. "Okay. Who's going to leave, then?" she said quietly, a deep resolve in her words. '_I will not cry. I will not let him see how much this hurts_,' she told herself.

Sirius rose quietly. "I'll go. You can have the flat. Alize…I'm sorry. I'll be out before the morning."

Even she couldn't restrain herself from asking one question. "Where will you go, Sirius?" she asked, fighting as hard as she could to keep her voice from breaking.

"I'll stay with Lily and James for a while…I think it's best that I leave as soon as I can…Thank you for not trying to persuade me, Alize."

She didn't hear him finish that sentence in his head with an '_If you had, I might have cracked…Cracked and told you everything, about how the Death Eaters are after me, and about how I'm trying to protect you…but then I know you wouldn't let me go, would have said all the right things and made me think that everything would be okay…But I know better. I just want you to be safe. I could never forgive myself if the Death Eaters used you against me and you were hurt…This is how it has to be._'

'This is how it has to be' became his mantra as he quickly packed his things. On his way out, he walked through the living room of their small flat. Alize was sitting on the couch, staring at the rain. He set down his suitcase and walked over to her, placing a large, pawlike hand on her shoulder. "Alize…"

She granted him a look. The steely resolve remained in her eyes. He moved his hand to her cheek and gently pulled her to him for one last gentle, soft kiss. "Goodbye," he whispered, and then strode quickly away, picking up his suitcase and all but running out the door.

As soon as Alize heard the door of the building slam, she broke down. Sobbing, she wrenched a small object from her messenger bag and threw the object at the wall as hard as she could, shattering it in two. She pulled an old blanket over her head and cried herself to sleep, staying on the couch. She could not bear to go into the bedroom.

The innocent white wizarding pregnancy test, with its small picture of a giggling baby and two celebrating, happy parents, lay forgotten in pieces near the wall.


	2. That I Would Be Good

**Hello everyone! Yes, yes, it's been a while. As of this chapter, I've decided, this will OFFICIALLY be an AU story. This won't become apparent in this chapter—and probably not for a few more chapters yet…but just so you all know. I'm not telling everyone exactly how it defers from the original story, but you can probably guess. I would _never_ answer my own challenge! (cough) By the way, the timeline's a bit wonky in this chapter. Sorry! I'm just a sleep-deprived high school student in a freezing computer room late at night. I love you all!**

* * *

_That I would be good even if I lost sanity  
__That I would be good  
__Whether with or without you_

Alanis Morisette, _That I Would Be Good_

A few more tears trailed down Alize's cheeks. For that matter, it had been raining two years ago on Halloween, when two of her very few close friends had died, and **he** had been found to be a traitor. Sometimes she wondered if there had been a mistake…Certainly, **he** had left her for no reason, but she had always secretly, secretly, thought that **he** had had a reason, and that they were all wrong about **him**. '_Despite all his flaws, **he** would_ never_ have betrayed Lily and James…_' Alize had always thought, secretly…but she couldn't come up with another plausible solution.

Alize was shaken out of her reverie by a gentle tug on her trailing sleeve. She glanced down to see a tiny three year old girl looking up at her. "Mommy, what's wrong?" said the girl in an innocently worried voice.

The tiny girl was as adorable as could be. Her black hair was a mess of curls (unlike Alize's own—or **his** for that matter) that framed her little-girl round face, and huge hazel eyes looked up worriedly at her mother, who had obviously been crying.

Not wanting to worry her innocent little child, Alize quickly cast around her mind for an excuse. "Mommy's just copying the clouds, honey," she said, sniffling slightly. She straightened her legs and extended her arms. "Come on, up you get, Diana dear," she said with a smile, picking up her daughter.

Diana hopped into her mother's arms and sat down on her lap, leaning against her mother's torso. Soon, Alize noticed a quiet sniffling sound. She leaned over the head of the girl on her lap and noticed the tears flowing from her eyes. A worried look covered her face and she spun the little girl around. "Di, what's wrong sweetheart?" she asked, eyes rapidly searching her daughter for anything outwardly wrong.

Diana smiled brightly, all signs of sadness gone. "I was just copying Mommy," she answered. Alize laughed and hugged her daughter tightly, pulling her to her chest. "I love you, sweetheart," Alize answered.

"I love you too, Mommy," said Diana, sounding slightly muffled.

---

It hadn't been easy for Alize and Diana. Alize had kept working as a curse breaker until she was eight months pregnant—partially because she loved the job, and partially because she needed the money, since her mother had died just before Alize broke up with **him**. As soon as Diana Cassiopeia Faustine was born, Alize had had to quit—she couldn't keep such a dangerous job in good conscience when she had such a small child. She ended up working at a muggle zoo, doing magic only at home. The entire reason Alize had taken this job was because she could take her daughter to work every day. Diana was all the family Alize had left, and she wanted to be as close to her daughter as she could. Despite the desperate need for closeness, Alize saw great value in muggle schooling—Diana would learn how to be sensible, social, and tolerant. Diana was not enrolled in preschool, but in a couple of years, she would be starting school.

Alize could already see **him** in her, ever since the day after her second birthday when she managed to find the stairway to the attic of the flat that was hidden in a closet. Diana had climbed up the stairway and hidden in the tiny attic, much to Alize's dismay when her daughter was nowhere to be found. After she had found Diana and extricated her from the attic, Alize had had an epiphany—she would have to face her feelings about **him** if she was going to be able to face her own daughter, and so she had sent Diana to a toddler day-trip. While Diana was gone for five hours, Alize had cried non-stop, but had come out of it much better, and Diana was glad her mommy seemed happier now.

The one person Alize had left, other than her daughter, was Remus. Precisely two days after **he** had broken up with her, she pulled herself off the floor, ate something, and owled Remus, telling him about the breakup and her pregnancy. She knew **he** was staying with Lily and James, and so if she'd owled them, **he** was likely to see it.

She did not want that happening.

Within the hour of her owl, Remus was in her living room. She knew that she had made the right choice in owling him, as he listened to her, but knew her well enough to not sit and hug her, but to do other things instead—like tidy up the filthy flat that had been stagnant for two days, and sort out Alize's mail. He first offered to talk some sense into Sirius, but Alize adamantly refused, so Remus resigned himself to stopping in every week or two to make sure Alize was doing okay.

She constantly informed him of his sainthood.

---

**No, there's nothing romantic going on with Alize and Remus, and there won't be, just in case you interpreted this that way. They're like brother and sister. Because of the wonky timeline of this chapter, I'm adding this as a clarification—the beginning of this chapter was "the present". Everything else has been flashbacks. The next chapter will begin as Diana turns eleven. Just to ease some confusion.**

**Reviews will make me love you to NO END. So please please please? **


	3. The Death of Cinderella

I wonder if I have any readers left. If I do…I'm SO SORRY! I got into other fandoms, I got really busy…whatever, excuses are like butts (everyone has one and they all stink). Anyway, I'm in a Creative Writing class and we had to write a 10,000 word story…so, I chose to combine Princes Familiar and Rain and finish up Rain for my story. Rain is now finished! It has seven chapters in total, five of which I'm uploading right now. Thanks for all your patience! By the way, all the lyrics are still Alanis, I've just decided to stop crediting after each one.

Also, contrary to what I said at the end of the last chapter, Diana is NOT eleven in this chapter. She was born in 1982, which makes her 13. She's a third year.

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_And thought-provoking,  
And opinionated  
Cultured and funny,  
And experienced...  
Fearless and tender,  
And sweetly innocent,  
Uninhibited,  
Likes a good debate._

**HOGSMEADE POST OFFICE**

Dear Mum,

I don't know if I've ever mentioned him, but you know Harry Potter is at Hogwarts with me, right? Well, not that he technically knows me or anything, he's a couple years older and in Gryffindor and all that, but...Well, he's starting a club against that horrid Umbridge woman...Okay, the point of the club is to teach us _real_ defense (as opposed to that rubbish Umbridge shoves at us), not to fight the horrid woman or anything, don't get your knickers in a twist; put that Howler down, this is sensitive information here Mum! And don't think about a scathing reply either; Umbridge is searching the post (which is why I'm sending it from here as opposed to with Athena, who sends her love, by the way, if an approving click of the beak counts as love. I'm also sending it from here because I think the great red stamp across the top is a nice touch, don't you?). If you need to get ahold of me, send a letter to Anna (she sends her love too, and would like to know if you want to have Christmas with her and her kids this year) and she'll get it to me, okay?

But, I digress. Like I said earlier, before I started passing on loads of love to you, Umbridge is searching the post. She's got some mad idea that Dumbledore is starting his own army or something (which is why we're not getting real defense--untaught students can't fight the Ministry), plus I think it gives her a bit of a power trip. Luna and I are meeting Harry and some other people at the Hog's Head in half an hour (no, I won't drink out of the glasses; no, I won't put my mouth on the butterbeer bottle without spelling it clean first; no, I won't order any firewhiskey; and yes, I'll be careful; you need to calm down or you'll get hypertension!). Luna's at Zonko's right now, but being the faithful, loving, wonderful daughter I am, instead of immersing myself in mirth, I'm writing my mum a letter to keep her up to date with the wild and crazy things going on in my life. Don't you feel grateful to have a child as incredible as me? You do? Well, you should.

Anyway, nothing else newsy here. Some of the older girls in the common room were twittering about Cho Chang kissing someone. I didn't catch who, not that it matters, but I decided to include this anecdote because I thought it might flash you back to your younger days of disdaining the twittering masses. You would think that the twittering masses would be slightly less massive in Ravenclaw, but if they are, I'd hate to be in, say, Hufflepuff. I wonder what the Slytherin twittering masses are like. Probably very sinister whilst twittering. Oh, now I'm laughing out loud, and the people in the post office are looking at me like I have three heads. See the things I go through for you?

Well, anyway, I've got to go now if I want to buy even one dungbomb before I go to the meeting (no, I won't use it on Filch, and if I do, I'll pin it on a member of the twittering masses; yes, I'm kidding; you should get that blood pressure checked out!).

Much love,

Diana

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Oh, PS. Anna would be a friend of Alize's from her curse-breaking days who lives in Hogsmeade. But that's not really important to the story at all.


	4. Ironic

Aaand here it is, the chapter you've all been waiting for since the end of PF…the inevitable meetup chapter! DUN DUN DUN.

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_Well life has a funny way of sneaking up on you  
When you think everything's okay and everything's going right  
And life has a funny way of helping you out when  
You think everything's gone wrong and everything blows up  
In your face_

Alize was watching the muggle news during dinner one night, not paying much attention to anything, when she heard a faint cry of "MUM!" from the general direction of her bedroom. A million questions zoomed through her head as she ran down the hall, putting her dinner on the counter so that the dog couldn't get to it.

She burst into her room, looking around for the source of the noise. Instantly, she realized her daughter's voice was coming from the antique mirror on her dresser. Alize grabbed the mirror and sat down on her bed. "What is it, Di? What's up?" she answered quickly, voice filled with worry. Diana hadn't contacted her before with the mirror, so she reasoned that something serious was going on.

"Mum! Thank goodness...Look, there's not really any time to explain, but...would you know how to contact Sirius Black?"

Later, Alize would describe the feeling as similar to being hit with a bolt of lightning.

She forced herself to breathe. "Diana...the man is a dangerous escaped convict. Why would you want to talk to him?" Alize asked her daughter, fake smile firmly in place.

Diana rolled her eyes exasperatedly. "No, Mom, he's innocent...Look, I'll explain later, it's just...Oh, Harry had a vision and he saw Sirius being tortured by You-Know-Who in the Department of Mysteries and he wants to see if he's okay, only Umbridge is watching the fires and post, and post is too slow anyway, so Harry's going to break into Umbridge's office to use _her_ fire, only I said hold on because I had an idea, since I figured you went to school with Sirius because you mentioned Lily and James and you guys are all the same age and in Gryffindor, but if you can't, then--"

"No." Alize took a steadying breath. "No, Diana, I can get ahold of him...but there are some extremely dangerous things in the Department of Mysteries, and I want you to promise me you won't go anywhere until I get back, understand?"

Diana rolled her eyes. "Well, I won't need to go if we can find out he's okay!"

"Just promise me, Diana."

"Okay, fine! Just go...talk to him or whatever!"

Alize sat down the mirror and breathed in again. She took out her want and tapped the mirror's reflection twice. "Sirius Black," she intoned quietly. The mirror chimed quietly and she saw something black. _'Sirius must have his mirror in his pocket...'_ Alize thought. She pushed her emotions aside, doing what she had to do for her daughter, and, in the loudest voice she could muster, said, "Sirius?"

Alize heard the sound of a glass shattering (apparently Sirius had dropped his tea) and Sirius gasping. "What the..."

Alize had to roll her eyes and smirk, in spite of herself. "In your pocket, you idiot."

The scenery before her eyes whipped quickly, as though she were on a train, and she closed her eyes so as not to become nauseous.

She could barely recognize the man in front of her as her past lover. His hair was long and matted, his cheeks were hollowed, and there was a haunted look in his eyes that had surely not been there before.

"Alize...is it really you?" he whispered hoarsely.

As much as she wanted to ask Sirius a million questions, she knew that this was hardly the time for catching up.

"Sirius, are you being tortured by You-Know-Who right now?" she asked brusquely, face as devoid of emotion as she could make it.

"What?" he asked, utterly bewildered.

"Sirius, Diana said that time is of the essence. Answer the question."

"Diana...?" He was still very confused. It would have been hilarious, were there not lives at stake.

"Your daughter, Sirius. I'll explain later, but if you're not at the Department of Mysteries and in extreme pain, I suggest you tell me so your progeny doesn't go flying off to 'save' you!" Alize spat, some of her long-supressed anger bubbling up to the surface.

Sirius yelped, shocked. "Alize, I..." Her glare silenced him, and he shook his head. "No, I'm at home! And I think I'd've noticed if--"

"Great, thanks Sirius, we'll talk later," Alize cut him off, tapping her wand to clear the mirror. "Diana Faustine," she said to it impatiently. The mirror chimed again, but it only showed a view of a stone ceiling. "Diana!" she yelled. She repeated herself after she got no answer, but suddenly, an unfamiliar face was in her mirror. "Uh, Diana just left," said the other girl.

"WHAT?!" Alize screeched. The girl started again, "I said--" "Nevermind!" Alize shouted, already hurriedly tapping the mirror with her want. "Sirius Black!" she yelled at it. The mirror chimed slightly more quickly than normal, sensing her urgency. Sirius was instantly in front of her; he had apparently been waiting for her to come back.

"She left, Sirius. Diana left. And the stupid girl left her mirror! I raised her better than that, Sirius!"

"Wait, her mirror? She has one, too?" he asked quickly.

Alize sighed exasperatedly. "Yes, I gave her one for Christmas this year because she said that Umbridge woman was watching the fires and post, and I wanted her to be able to contact me in an emergency. She told me Harry wanted to get ahold of you, so he was going to break into Umbridge's office and use her fire, because it was the only one that wasn't being watched...Oh, I just know they're going to get caught!" Alize moaned.

"Harry's the stupid one! At least Diana used hers! I gave Harry James' old one for Christmas too, for the same reason, and here he is, breaking into Umbridge's office instead of using his brain!" Sirius shouted, running his hand through his hair in frustration

Alize smirked, some old affection for him creeping to the surface. "That, dear, is why Diana is in Ravenclaw," she quipped. She mentally slapped herself when she let that 'dear' slip, but the glimmer of hope in Sirius' haunted eyes was almost worth it. Almost.

"She is? ...Will you tell me all about Diana, Alize? I...I want to get to know her, and make up for the time I missed..." There was a pause. "Alize, when...?" Sirius asked, his stormy eyes softening.

"Sirius, now is hardly the time, but I'll tell you that I was going to tell you I was pregnant on the day that you...left me. She was born February fifteenth, 1982." Sirius winced. "But, Sirius, you know, you won't be _able_ to get to _know_ her if we don't get to the Department of Mysteries and _save_ her." Sirius nodded, but didn't move. "_Now_ would be a good time!"

Sirius shook his head again. "Oh, right, of course. Let me go call the Order...The Order of the Phoenix has reformed, by the way...I suppose you'll want to join?"

Alize nodded, but then paused. "Sirius, why do we need to call the whole Order to go get some delinquent teenagers? Can't we handle them ourselves?"

Sirius' expression darkened. "Alize...I'll have to explain later how I know this, but...This is a trap set by the Death Eaters to lure Harry there...Well, you're right about the saving thing, but we'll need the whole Order, and even then..." Sirius shook his head again and Alize wondered if he'd developed a nervous tic. "Look, Alize, just meet me in London, outside the Ministry...Apparate there, I'll be there in about fifteen minutes, disguised of course."

Alize nodded and stuffed her mirror in her jacket pocket. She grabbed up her wand from next to her and looked around for any possible supplies she might need. Alize thanked Merlin for undetectable expansion spells and stuffed several generic healing potions in her pocket, in addition to a couple of common antidotes she had lying around. Taking a deep breath and hoping against hope that Sirius was wrong, Alize apparated off to London.


	5. After a Year

The plot thickens as the author sneaks in cameos! Cue suspenseful music! (Oh, as if you don't all know how this is going to end anyway, xD)

* * *

_After a year like this one  
I'm surprised I do not hate your guts_

Alize was leaning casually against a pole, nervously twisting a piece of hair and pretending to read a map while really looking around for any sign of Sirius. Suddenly, she felt a gentle tap on her shoulder. She whirled around far too quickly and was met with someone who looked very much like the Remus of fifteen years ago, only with Sirius' grey eyes. After she caught her breath, she smirked. "Nice disguise choice. Are you trying to make people see double?"

Sirius snorted. "No, actually, I'm going as my conscience for Halloween. Trick or treat?"

Alize rolled her eyes. "Sirius, now is hardly the time for jokes."

"Sorry. Humor is my defense mechanism. You know that."

Alize shot him a glare full of thinly-veiled guilt. "No, I _knew_ that. Remember, I haven't seen you in about fourteen years."

Sirius winced again. "And in that time, you've become fourteen times more caustic, I see."

"Raising a teenager does that to you. Speaking of said teenager, where is the rest of the Order?" Alize asked, looking around them. The street was almost completely empty.

Sirius smirked and leaned over to whisper to Alize's ear. An old flicker of attraction warmed the pit of her stomach, but she swatted it away with annoyance. "Disillusionment charms, dear. We're meant to casually stroll into the Ministry's phone booth, and as quickly and with as little fuss as possible, dismember it and get us all in there. They're not likely to let even half the Order in there legally, the way things have been lately...certainly not me, anyway. Come on, then. Let's get up to some mischief, like in the good old days, yeah?" He took her by the elbow and started walking towards the phone booth, looking as natural as you please.

Alize was amazed that after fourteen years of separation, twelve of which he'd spent in Azkaban, Sirius could just meander down the street with her calmly. Then she happened to glance into his eyes.

It was just as she remembered--for her, his eyes had always been easy to read. He was internally torn up about the situation at hand. Beneath the thick curtain of haunted sorrow that Azkaban had forced into the windows to Sirius' soul, Alize could detect worry (for Diana and Harry), nervousness (both about the current situation and the one to come), frustration (at Harry, probably), anger (at the Death Eaters), and something Alize couldn't quite place, but that seemed very familiar. For some inexplicable reason, Alize's face began to colour, a reaction she'd always hated whenever it arose, and she glanced away quickly, so as not to be caught.

Sirius stopped walking and opened the phone booth door for her. She smiled, a little surprised, and remarked (not completely without malice), "Prison has taught you some manners, I see." Sirius cringed as he followed her in and shut the door. "I suppose I deserved that one."

"So, how are we going to go about this?" Alize asked him. Sirius stuck out his hand. "Your wand, please?" he asked as he simultaneously withdrew a slip of parchment from his pocket with the other hand. Alize gave him a dubious glance, but handed him her wand anyway.

Sirius squinted at the scrap in the dim twilight and began to dial a number on the keypad. "6-2-4-6-8-3-6-2-6-2-3," he muttered as he touched the appropriate keys.

"Maintenance mode activated," said a pleasant female voice at the other end.

Alize's eyebrows shot up into her hairline. "Impressive." Sirius shook his head, immersed in reading the rest of the note. "Nah, it was Dumbledore who worked it out, actually."

"Ah." An awkward silence filled the tiny phone booth as Sirius finished reading the note and mumbled some charms with Alize's wand, occasionally poking keypad buttons with the tip. Instantly, the machine began spilling out entrance tokens and ID badges with false names. Sirius handed Alize her wand, then somehow managed to bend down and retrieve two tokens and two badges. He handed one pair to Alize and took one pair for himself. Sirius and Alize put their tokens into the phone booth and, unusually, were instantly deposited (unceremoniously) into the main Ministry lobby instead going down a long shaft in the booth, as normal.

Alize quirked an eyebrow. Sirius grinned charmingly. "The instant teleportation was my touch," he hissed as he extended a hand to help her up. Alize pointedly ignored it and proceeded to get up herself and brush imaginary dust off her pocket. "Add a cushioning charm next time, will you? I'm getting old, I might break a hip."

Conveniently, the large golden fountain in the middle of the lobby hid them from view of the staffers at the front desk, who had apparently not noticed anyone appearing in the middle of their lobby. Within a few minutes, the space all around this side of the fountain was oddly shimmery. The rest of the Order had arrived.

A grizzly voice that Alize recognized faintly muttered, "Faustine, nice to see you again. Good to see you're not missing any necessary body parts, seeing as we'll be fighting today. Come here and let me Disillusion you." Alize did as she was told, and the once-familiar sensation of an egg being cracked on her head sent chills down her spine and raised goosebumps on her now-transparent arms. She glanced around for Sirius, but found he was transparent also.

"Here, this way," said a calm, hoarse voice, very quietly. Had the situation been different, Alize would have gone up and hugged Remus--she hadn't seen him since after he finished teaching Diana during her first year--but she knew that this was neither the time nor the place.

* * *

Once they entered the Department of Mysteries (just before their charms wore off; Moody had excellent timing), Alize pointed out that some of the swirling door chamber's doors had flaming Xs on them. Kingsley, who she had always rather liked, complimented her, and Remus nodded. "That means they have to be in one of these four rooms. We can't really afford to split up, considering we don't know how many Death Eaters there are, so..." Remus trailed off, uncertain.

Tonks shook her head. "If there's fighting, we can hear it. Let's try listening to the doors. Quiet, everyone!"

Alize would have spoken volumes about how brilliant the younger woman was if time had allowed. Instead, she leaned up against the nearest door and started to listen carefully as the room spun.

"Over here! I can recognize my cousin's screech a mile away!" Sirius declared excitedly. He flung open the door and the Order of the Phoenix poured in.


	6. Head Over Feet

As stated earlier, this story is firmly AU…which is made really, painfully clear in this chapter. This is how canon SHOULD have gone anyway!

* * *

_You've already won me over in spite of me  
Don't be alarmed if I fall head over feet  
Don't be surprised if I love you for all that you are  
I couldn't help it  
It's all your fault_

The action was dying down all around the battlefield. Once the Order had arrived, the tables had been solidly turned on the Death Eaters (who'd been having enough problems with Harry, Diana, and the rest of the teenagers). There were just a few battles going on here and there. Alize stunned her current Death eater to see Sirius battling Bellatrix Lestrange on a platform. A pang of nervousness gripped her chest suddenly as she noted the dangerous-looking veil and the situation; Sirius was being arrogant as always and laughing at Bellatrix. Alize saw the curse coming before he did.

"PROTEGO!" she screamed with all her might. Sirius, stunned from Bellatrix's curse, fell backwards--into Alize's shield. He slid down the shield's invisible surface and collapsed in an unconscious heap. Alize didn't stop after she cast the spell. She ran up to the platform and shoved Sirius out of the way of Bellatrix's next curse, then stunned Bellatrix herself. Remus ran up and clapped Alize on the shoulder, having realized the gravity of the situation as well (but having been too far away to do anything about it). He tied up Bellatrix while Alize knelt next to Sirius.

"Ennervate," she whispered. Sirius woke up and shook his head. "Wha...what happened to Bella?" he asked, squinting bemusedly at Alize. Once she saw he was okay, she slapped him across the face twice, hard. Sirius yelped, clutching his reddening cheek. "Ouch! What was that for?!"

Alize glared. "The first one was for leaving me with no explanation. The second was for not noticing that you were fighting in front of one of the most dangerous magical artifacts ever and nearly dying," she scolded.

Sirius smiled, the pain forgotten. He reached up a hand to cup Alize's cheek. "I've missed you, you know," and he leaned in for a kiss. Alize stopped him with a firm, but gentle finger on his lips. "Not here, Sirius," she commented, jerking her head inconspicuously at Diana, who was watching the pair confusedly.

Sirius grinned and said, "Shall we tell her, then?" Alize sighed.

"A one track mind, just like always," she commented, standing up and extending an arm to help Sirius up. He smiled as he accepted the offered assistance.

"You wouldn't have me any other way."


	7. Thank You

It's the end of the road! Thanks for all the wonderful, sweet reviews about Rain and PF! I appreciate you all and the numerous boosts to my ego!

Oh yes, one more thing before I leave you with some sugary fluff! The scene from Chapter Two, where Alize was hugging Diana and crying? I commissioned a picture of it from the lovely Kanae! I'm putting a link to the picture in my profile tomorrow (as I can't go back and edit Chapter Two). I changed Alize's hair colour from the picture she drew me because my ref wasn't too accurate, it was my fault, and I didn't want to put her through the trouble.

* * *

_How about me enjoying the moment for once  
How about how good it feels to finally forgive you_

Dear Mum and Dad,

This year's boring as usual so far. We've got a new Potions master, which is nice, since Snape always hated me. Somehow I think he could sense that I was your daughter, Dad. Maybe it was just because I was smarter than he was.

The first Hogsmeade weekend's coming up soon. Is there anything you guys would like me to pick up and send to you? I can do it pretty easily now, since Umbridge is gone and all (and thank Merlin for that). Come on, Mum, I know you're just dying for some of those chocolate covered cherberries! And Dad, want me to send you a Fanged Frisbee or two; or perhaps something mail-ordered from Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes? Fred and George offered me a discount when I told them who you were, so…let's abuse it, yeah?

Mum, forget everything in that last paragraph after the word cherberries, okay? I'm only joking, Mum, only joking. And no, Dad's not been a bad influence on me; lighten up!

Well, I'll keep this short and sweet, as I've class in about fifteen minutes on the third floor, and I'm in the owlery as I write. I hope you two are happy in your newly-reunited bliss! I always told Mum she should get out and date some rich guy with a kid who has attractive friends, but she didn't, which makes you happy, doesn't it, Dad? Sorry if I wasn't supposed to say that, Mum!

Much Love From Your Darling Little Angel Pumpkin,

Diana

PS: Athena sends her love too, and Anna says she's really confused and expects a full account of details of the last six months from you, Mum, and it'd better be two feet long or she'll have to have some serious words with you, and I wanted to make a pun when she told me that, but I restrained myself.


End file.
